It is largely hypothesis in regard to whether it is actually relevant to this debate. The counter argument to that is being exposed to things in small doses you will see as an older person is probably not a bad thing.
What I see is essentially “child washing” like we see with “green washing” basically a product which doesn’t really do a whole lot more but is splashed with the right kind of marketing to appeal to parents.
If you look at Gabb for example its purely about trying to sign parents up on a subscription for an expensive ecosystem of products and making it difficult for them to leave. They’re hoping that “Ill spend anything to protect my children” is going to sell it and outsource responsibility.
The real red flag there is they don’t actually tell you what phone it is that they are selling besides it being “a Samsung” but based on the pictures I’d say it’s their entry level phones like a Samsung Galaxy A15 (which is about $200 USD) . Here’s some choice reviews from reddit. There are countless more threads in /r/dumbphones.
I found this one hillarious: Gabb phones are useless if you need to contact 988
Don’t worry. No one is in danger.
988 is the s*icide hotline. It censors “harmful” words, and because it doesn’t have any internet access, you can’t fill the survey out. It’s just frustrating when someone’s trying to help, and every other word they’re using is censored.
At least it no longer outright blocks any incoming messages with the letters “http” anywhere.
Also more technical overview Gabb Phone (Samsung A15) discussion | XDA Forums chssky 12, 2025
Hi all! I have a project that I just got started on and I’ll be posting my discoveries here as I go on.
A friend of mine recently was able to get a Gabb Phone (specifically a “4 Pro”) for a cheap price of 50 bucks (75% off). He asked if I wanted to tinker with it and see how it worked, so I did. Even though I have my own phone (an iPhone), I still thought it may be interesting to see how this works. While I haven’t done much work on it yet I can post some information that isn’t really out there. If you want to see the intended use of it you can go to their website: Gabb Phone 4 Pro | Safe Phone for Kids & Teens
First of all, this is not some revolutionary piece of software like they claim to be. This is literally an Android phone with Samsung Knox Suite on it. There are a lot of restrictions designed to provide security. The ones I have found will be listed. Also, as soon as I received the phone, I removed the SIM card before turning it on, and have effectively airgapped it. Gabb is known to lock phones that have been tampered with so I will NOT let that happen. This device is currently running Android 14.
Restrictions and Limitations
Apps
- There are the following preinstalled apps. The following cannot be removed or terminated:
- MyGabb (Always running in the background, cannot terminate process)
- GabbID (seems to be a login for your Gabb account)
- Gabb Music (a “clean” music service by gabb which honestly is a complete cash grab)
- Gabb Messenger (“safe” alternative to Messages)
- Gabb Weather (which actually can be uninstalled)
- Gabb Phone (a modified version of the Phone app)
- Photos (Gabb has modified this app to only work with GabbID)
Most default apps have been removed. The following are preinstalled with the phone, and nothing else:
The 6 apps discussed above
My Files, Contacts, Play Store, Settings, Knox Manage, Notes, Camera, Calendar, Clock, Gallery, Knox Remote Support (which seems to be unfunctional), VLC, Knox Browser (I will get into this as it is not what you think), and Calculator.Samsung Management by Knox is in place. They seem to be using Knox Suite and connect each phone to their Knox system. The domain connected to this is corp.gabbwireless.com as seen in Knox Manage. This domain is unaccessible and must be some sort of VPN that the phone connects to when connected to the Gabb network. This is likely the brains of the operation.
You probably noticed that I mentioned a browser on the apps list, which makes no sense when they advertise no web browsing. Well, the catch is that everything is blocked, and I mean everything. Even their home page and Gabb support page which they bookmarked themselves from the factory (lol), are blocked.
Restrictions I have found
- Before you ask, developer tools refused to activate. Clicking the build number immediately brings a popup saying “Setting is not available”.
- Samsung account is disabled
- There is a Google for Work system profile under Accounts, which is unremovable. The user is also unable to add any accounts. If anyone knows what this is for I would love to know, the domain ends in “@ANDROID-for-work.gserviceaccount.com”.
- VPN settings are completely disabled
- Only apps from Google Play and Galaxy Store can be installed. Unknown app installation is completely disabled
Background Processes (that are different)- Gabb Cloud Sync
- GabbServices (this is another backend tool although it does strangely not have admin rights on the phone)
- Knox Service Plugin
- Separated Apps
- Enrollment Service
So the project begins. If any of you have ideas on how to remove Gabb, I’d be glad to know. Mainly annoyed that they are advertising this as something only they can do when it’s not very custom at all lol.
TLDR cash grab to get subscribers on their ecosystem.
You can control all this with the parental controls.